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When duty calls in church leadership, sometimes you have to roll your sleeves up and get your hands dirty. One pastor took this philosophy so seriously that he found himself behind the controls of an excavator, digging scoops of dirt to kickstart the construction of a brand-new church building.
We were excited for the chance to catch up with Fr. Jeffrey Starkovich to unravel the story of how he found himself in this unlikely position.
He started by sharing that he has been serving the (initially) small parish of St. Pius X in Ragley, Louisiana since 2018, and has been a loyal Flocknote admin for 11 years. “Flocknote has been a major part of our parish life as long as I’ve been pastor here,” he said. “It was huge for us during the hurricanes.”
In fact, after enduring 6 natural disasters in 3 years, including Hurricanes Laura & Delta, the very rural area saw a boom in population and shifting demographics as people migrated north into his parish. “We don’t have a single red light or traffic signal in the entire parish of 300 square miles, but we’ve experienced tremendous growth,” he shared.
This growth included a 20% increase in mass attendance, prompting parishioners to clamor for more space. He joked, “Constantly the parish was like ‘Father, we need more places to sit! Father, the church isn’t big enough! Father, we need to do something!’”
When the plans were drawn up and parishioners could see the vision for a future building, they gained enormous amounts of energy. “They were just coming forward and saying ‘We want to help, we want to help, we want to help!’”
A man named Brandon Habetz led a small team of volunteers who were willing to donate their time and equipment to raise the level of the new church site (to prevent flooding), but they needed diesel to operate the machines.
Knowing sometimes you’ve got to break ground, both figuratively and literally, to pave the way for new opportunities, Fr. Jeffrey and the team got to work. They estimated 5,000 gallons of diesel would be needed to operate 2 excavators and 3 tractors. The cost? $20,000.
Armed with 15 years of varied parish experience, Fr. Starkovich knew the realities of church fundraising, including the common difficulties with online giving tools. “With certain platforms, you have to create an account, make a user name, make a password, give your email address…and give all these things which can be difficult in trying to capture a donation immediately.”
Knowing this, he determined 3 non-negotiables for a successful campaign:
Enter Flocknote, the chosen platform for St. Pius X’s needs. With built-in online giving capabilities (included free with all Flocknote plans) and a user-friendly interface, Flocknote emerged as the ideal solution for their goals.
Fr. Jeffrey was able to pull his phone out right on the spot, and record a quick video to share the need with their community. Parishioners were invited to contribute towards diesel needed for construction. The call-to-action was simple: text DIESEL to 84576 or visit spx.church/diesel to donate.
And with that, the Dollars for Diesel campaign was born and, in Fr. Jeffrey’s words, “It took off like wildfire!”
Realizing everyone got an absolute kick out of seeing a priest operate heavy machinery, he decided to inject fun into fundraising by announcing that the parish team would allow him to ride the excavator again…but only if they reached their funding goal!
“Part of fundraising is you have to have a good story,” he shared. This included sharing regular updates to build momentum within the community:
But fundraising is serious business – would silly pictures & videos even work? Well, at the time of our chat, he was able to pull up his Flocknote account to look up the exact funding results in real time:
188 households had given 199 gifts for a grand total of $23,665, surpassing their original goal!
The success of the campaign was actually so overwhelming that their $20,000 goal has now transformed into an ambitious Capital Campaign to build their new church and other buildings, a testament to the generosity of the parishioners. “God definitely has something big in store,” says Fr. Jeffrey. “God uses bad things to create greater good if we trust, and I’m happy Flocknote has been a part of it.”
In the wake of natural disasters, the St. Pius X team is redefining hands-on church leadership. When Fr. Jeffrey isn’t using Flocknote to fundraise and share all the great work the parish is doing, you’ll likely find him on an excavator somewhere.
Interested in using Flocknote for your next fundraiser, event, or all your regular church tithing & giving needs? Online & mobile giving is included free with all Flocknote plans, and features:
Written by Chanelle
Flocknote Happiness Engineer
Included in the Flocknote Starter package.